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Report transcript in: The importance of joined up services
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The importance of joined up services
Please Report the Errrors?
Good morning, Ben.
Morning.
What has been your experience of seeking support as
someone with co occurring mental health and substance issues?
Well, it's a big one to answer,
I suppose. I've been using alcohol since I was.
Well, first of all, I'm a bit of an alcoholic.
I love booze. Who loves me?
I have an addictive personality.
So it can be Chocolate can be Pepsi. It can be anything.
Got to watch that.
So I started using it when I was 14 and then decided to do something about it.
About four years ago,
I
moved away from Bridgend Services
and then into Cardiff and Vale Services.
And what a difference that was the right doctors were there the right consultants,
the right psychiatrists
in Bridgend. They had nothing, really.
They have a place called art, which is a waste of time.
Um,
and for me, it was confusing because the same as
most people. You go to the doctor.
First of all, you ask the doctor for advice,
whether you want to quit smoking or give up the drink and so on.
So I'd say the first point of call is the doctor,
but it would have been easier for me instead of being referred by the doctor to mind,
then mind to recovery Camry
and then to a clinic called Neurons in Barry, where they give you anti views.
If you choose to
go on that sort of line so you don't
relapse or lapse at all because
you've made a final decision that
is
no longer needed in your life.
Um,
and it was being bounced from pillar to post and then when he went back to the first
point of code to the doctor
because he'd already dealt with it,
they just wave you away.
You need
some
diazepines.
So you've already been invited to services. You're known by services,
and then when you need to change,
maybe some medication or you automatically go back to the doctor. But
when you become under mental Health Team of Barry, for instance,
I don't know much about Cardiff,
But you end up having a consultant,
and as soon as that consultant takes over
your care of treating you for mental health,
then
the problem is, if you go back to the doctor, you won't do anything.
It just passes about
when you go back to the mental health
doctor that you're seeing or consultant in Barry.
They pass them back back to the doctor.
So there needs to be something called a name for this
organisation that merges everything into one,
and they can deal with any substance
misuse of any kind.
They also have counselling there. They also have work coaches.
You need to get back to work. They also have to have. These are just a few ideas.
It needs to be the complete package,
but it also needs to be accessed in a very simple and easiest way. These people who are
suffering from substance misuse
nine times out of 10,
they're only five per cent a week and 10 a day.
It's very confusing to even
find out how to make an appointment to see a doctor at that stage,
especially if a bloke and you don't really go to
the doctors because we don't like that sort of thing.
I think I think for me, the most important thing is to
have a place and a name
exactly like Go to Morrison's Henry. You're starving. You get a free meal,
you go to boots
and other places. And if the ladies need tamp backs now they can say a certain word.
I can't remember what it's called,
but you just need a certain phrase or something
could be the main name for it all. But it could be something more fun.
Yeah,
a bit like 108 for instance. Or,
you know,
it could be
Trade Centre, Wales, for your car. We all know those things.
It's got to be something that's advertised on television
is memorable, and it
will
access you to all the right services. But then also from my experience,
I gave up alcohol and they gave me huge amounts of antidepressants, psychosis,
medicine and so on.
And for me, they
didn't balance that right. I ended up getting very ill
and ended up having a complete psychosis breakdown,
which lasted for three days and ended up having to go to a hospital
and was treated there for three days,
as I said and then was allowed out on the fourth back home.
But afterwards the service was great because
there's a place called Monmouth House in,
you know, the Heath Hospital in Cardiff, obviously run by a consultant, Dr
Baller. In my case,
there was this class That was every day from 10 o'clock till four.
Or if you fancy doing an hour or you went there just to play pool,
to be with a counsellor or a
support worker,
and that went on for me for three weeks. But it was made available.
Part of me didn't even want to go to it.
These guys there, you
know, they've been in the
some of them 45 years. They come off the floor of the
and really highly skilled people.
And that lasted for me for two weeks. But then I asked for another week.
Now, bear in mind, most people get get a bus,
get a train to try and nick a ride off somebody to get to the hospital.
Especially if you don't have any of those. And most people wouldn't even bother.
But now the
providing a taxi
that picks you up from the house takes you there and drops you back home.
And that taxi driver knows exactly why he has picked you up from the
C.
And he reports back to say I've dropped him off safely to his house. Or
and
then he also connects straight back with
Monmouth House
if there's any other problems or issues.
So I thought that, for me was absolutely superb.
So
say once you've crossed a certain threshold of
high level services that they started dealing, you know,
like taking you seriously,
you
support what they were talking about. Highly skilled.
One nurse was there 45 years as
a chap there who he was. He was a solicitor,
and he decided to become a psychologist
and
a champion for people.
And I remember the experience I had was very ill even after hospital.
But he sort of tried to normalise me into society by taking me through,
walks through the park, taking me out for coffee and getting me used to it again.
And that was the best thing anybody's ever done for me because
I felt alone after I'd given up the alcohol or the substances.
I
felt alone before when I was using them,
and it was just This part of my life wasn't used to having nothing poison in it,
and I needed somebody to show me what life is about,
and that for me, was the best thing.
The most important thing. I think you can get from this video is that
people can get better, but you have to provide the right services,
and it's got to be all linked together.
It can't be
running over Timothy to borrow from Paul,
and then it all goes wrong because you got to go back to Timothy.
And Paul doesn't know what he's talking about.
There's got to be one database
and one
help.
Yeah, I feel the frustration with Pillar to post, and then it was incredible.
I have so many telephone numbers,
so much little bits of homework to do,
obviously, to monitor my own behaviour, to understand who I am
and what my needs were every day.
And also, when you're taking substances, you tend not to look after yourself.
Your health goes downhill.
You're not eating right and things your brain's not working properly.
You really are.
If you look at it in intensive care, you need intensive care
and you need this one
body
to look after you
all.
Some of the first steps are the hardest for a human
being to go through when they're sort of that broken,
and that low
and just starting to reach out could be agoraphobic or paranoid,
not used to being around people.
Group work could be so difficult to deal with mentally.
Do you relate to any of that stuff?
I do.
I think the main thing about when you decide it can be my
choice was I decided I do not want alcohol in my system anymore.
So I made that little call to the doctor. Took me about a day,
two days to even get the phone answered because the
doctors are
neither here nor there.
But the initial thing was
making the decision myself.
I mean, not everybody can do that, but if they're invited to a service,
they could be,
you know,
sessions for people to help them make that decision so that they can use the services
and actually have a life at the end of it.
Well, congratulations, Ben, that you've done well.
Sounds like you've been on a journey.
Thank
you.
Thanks. Thank you.
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